News Main Menu

Free lecture, titled 'A Hubble Story,' set for Oct. 27

Free lecture, titled 'A Hubble Story,' set for Oct. 27

October 20, 2010

A free presentation titled "A Hubble Story" will take place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 27, in room 100 of the Thomas Building on Penn State's University Park campus. The program will be presented by John Grunsfeld, former NASA astronaut and current Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute. This event is part of the 2010-2011 Friedman Lecture Series in Astronomy. Grunsfeld's presentation will combine the excitement of human spaceflight and the amazing imagery now being captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. A veteran of five space flights, Grunsfeld has logged more than 58 days in space, including 58 hours and 30 minutes of extravehicular activity in eight space walks.

The Hubble Space Telescope story always has been a fascinating study in public policy, engineering, ethics and science. Most recently, on a 13-day mission and over the course of five spacewalks, a team of astronauts including Grunsfeld completed an extreme makeover of the orbiting observatory. Now, for the first time, the Hubble has a full complement of instruments capable of performing state-of-the-art observations from the near infra-red wavelengths of light to the ultraviolet end of the spectrum. The first wave of scientific results from the new and repaired instruments hints at a bright scientific future for Hubble and will be presented in Grunsfeld's talk along with a narrative of his adventures in orbit.

"We are very excited that Hubble is continuing its legacy of astronomical breakthroughs, and we are fortunate that Dr. Grunsfeld can share with us his experiences performing spacewalks to repair the Space Telescope," said Chris Palma, senior lecturer of astronomy and astrophysics.

Grunsfeld received a bachelor of science degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980; a master of science degree and a doctoral degree in physics from the University of Chicago in 1984 and 1988, respectively; and has since held a variety of academic positions. His research has covered X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy, high-energy cosmic ray studies, and development of new detectors and instrumentation. He has studied binary pulsars and energetic X-ray and gamma ray sources using the NASA Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, X-ray astronomy satellites, radio telescopes, and optical telescopes including the NASA Hubble Space Telescope.

This presentation is hosted by the Penn State Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and is funded largely by the Ronald M. and Susan J. Friedman Outreach Fund in Astronomy. Mr. Friedman is a member of the department's Board of Visitors.

John M. Grunsfeld, former NASA astronaut, will speak at Penn State on Oct. 27.